Malawi's president has challenged corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) to back its findings that graft has worsened in the southern African country.
The State House said in a press statement that President Bingu wa Mutharika questioned how TI reached its conclusions .
"Transparency International has to prove that corruption has worsened in Malawi in the last three years and we challenge them to show us the methods they used to come up with the latest figures," said the statement.
TI identified Malawi as a nation with widespread graft in its latest corruption perceptions report, saying its ranking had slipped.
The CPI is a composite index that draws on multiple expert opinion surveys measuring perceived levels of public sector corruption in 180 countries.
It scores countries on a scale of zero to 10, with zero indicating high levels of perceived corruption and 10 indicating low levels. A mark below three suggests corruption is "rampant".
Malawi received a 2.7 rating.
"We know that Transparency International used outdated information ... that's why we are calling on their director to justify how they came up with this," said the State House.
Berlin-based TI said that while poorer countries should tackle their own graft problems, richer states are also responsible, and often to blame.
Malawi's Anti-Corruption Bureau says that in the last two years it has handled 900 graft cases and only managed to conclude 12 of them.
"This represents only 1.3 percent of the total number of cases. We have managed to convict and acquit others within this space of time because corruption is not an easy issue to deal with," said its spokesman, Joseph Chimatiro, on Thursday.
Thursday, 25 October 2007
Malawi Parliament Rejects Funding for Public Broadcasters
Public service broadcasters in Malawi have decided to defy the laws under which they were established by going commercial. They took the step after Parliament made a drastic cut in their funding, accusing them of bias in covering important political issues. Voice of America English to Africa reporter Lameck Masina reports from Blantyre that Malawi state radio and television remain public entities on paper, but for all practical purposes, they will now operate as private stations.
In September, Parliament cut their funding, providing only a symbolic allocation of one kwacha -- about one US cent. By law the Parliament cannot remove all financial support without holding a vote. Last year, it allocated only about half the amount requested for the budgets of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Malawi Television (TVM).
The opposition-dominated Parliament said the two state broadcasters were simply propaganda tools of the government. Sam Mpasu explains the Parliament’s action. Mpasu is the spokesperson of the opposition Democratic Front, which has the second largest number of representatives in the National Assembly after the opposition Malawi Congress Party.
He says “The opposition felt it necessary to cut them off out completely from any public funding. The reason is simple: MBC and TVM have been used as instruments of castigation of the opposition without giving the opposition the right of reply and we think this is …downright unethical, unprofessional not even worth the name of being called a national broadcaster.”
But broadcasters dismiss the accusations. The deputy director of the MBC, Bright Malopa, says opposition politicians often turn down requests for interviews. In fact, in a recent news broadcast, Mpasu spoke with a reporter about Mpasu’s reluctance to talk:
Mpasu: “Well, MBC have been very bad to me although you [the reporter] personally haven’t been. So I am not quite anxious to talk to MBC.”
Reporter: “So you can’t give us an interview; that’s what you are saying?”
Mpasu: “Exactly.”
The MBC has also been facing tough times in its bid to talk to the opposition leader in Parliament, John Tembo, who is also president of the opposition Malawi Congress Party. The media quotes Tembo as saying he was going to get even with the president for stopping Parliament before important issues had been addressed.
Among them was a move to declare vacant the seats of any legislator who had switched parties. Had the plan gone into action, the ruling DPP party would have had to defend in new polls up to 60 of its seats – likely handing a victory to Mr. Tembo and the Malawi Congress Party.
In the following dialog with an MBC reporter, Tembo denies that he was planning to take revenge against the government.
Tembo: “Who did I tell that I was going to [avenge]?”
MBC reporter: “It was in the [news] papers, Sir.”
Tembo: “I don’t give interviews on what is in the papers. I am asking you on the basis of your information, who did I tell?”
Reporter: “we would like to get the reactions on what the president has done.”
Tembo hangs up.
Mpasu explains his attitude towards MBC:
“MBC has personally insulted me twice. I gave them an interview and they distorted what I said, which I thought was totally unethical. So, I said no, these people are useless. What they want is to create a wrong impression of me by using their electronic tricks to make me say what I did not say.“
Prominent media analyst Levi Zeleza Manda says he does not blame those who refuse to give interviews to the state-run media and other groups that take quotations out of context, “The thing is this, if you interview me for an opinion and that opinion was completely misplaced, the next time, I wouldn’t be willing to come to you and respond.”
Berson Lijenda is the chairperson of the Parliamentary Media and Communications Committee and a member of the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF.) He asks why his fellow opposition members did not use their majority to amend the Communications Act, which gives government power to control the public broadcasters.
But former speaker of Parliament Sam Mpasu says asking for an amendment of the Communications Act is missing the point. He says the Communications Act, which was passed in 1998, took away all the powers that were in the hands of the minister of information or the president. He said it vested those powers in the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA,) which he alleges is doing nothing to discipline the public broadcasters.
Recently MACRA has been running advertisements in newspapers criticizing the behavior of some broadcasters.
Minister of Information and Civic Education Patricia Kaliati denies any accusation of bias among the state broadcasters. She says the broadcasters will only survive by going into business full time. Kaliati warned competitors to brace for tougher competition in the scramble for advertisers. The minister says even religious, health and other social programs will be paid for with advertising.
MBC has started accepting advertisements for its social programs, despite arguments by legal experts that it’s contravening the law that governs public broadcasting. For example, in one of its newscasts, MBC reported that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF-Malawi) paid about 3.4 million Kwacha (about $25,000 US dollars) to the network for its social programs.
On the other hand, the law governing broadcasting allows only limited advertising and focuses on the “social responsibility” required of broadcasters that receive public funding. Some lawyers say the MBC act of 1964 also does not allow the network to go commercial. The broadcaster argues that the 1998 Communications Act overrules previous injunctions against advertising.
President Bingu wa Mutharika says despite the failure of the Parliament to provide funding, the two public service broadcasters will survive – with or without tax payer support, “TVM and MBC were established under the act of Parliament so there was no need to give them one Kwacha -- Why one Kwacha? One Kwacha is too much. It was better to give us without anything. But MBC and TVM will continue.”
But the opposition says it is ready to reverse the decision should the public broadcasters start doing their job in a professional manner. Some accuse the opposition of reversing themselves, but observers note that elections are coming in 2009, and some of the opposition candidates probably want to be sure their campaigns receive national coverage.
In September, Parliament cut their funding, providing only a symbolic allocation of one kwacha -- about one US cent. By law the Parliament cannot remove all financial support without holding a vote. Last year, it allocated only about half the amount requested for the budgets of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) and Malawi Television (TVM).
The opposition-dominated Parliament said the two state broadcasters were simply propaganda tools of the government. Sam Mpasu explains the Parliament’s action. Mpasu is the spokesperson of the opposition Democratic Front, which has the second largest number of representatives in the National Assembly after the opposition Malawi Congress Party.
He says “The opposition felt it necessary to cut them off out completely from any public funding. The reason is simple: MBC and TVM have been used as instruments of castigation of the opposition without giving the opposition the right of reply and we think this is …downright unethical, unprofessional not even worth the name of being called a national broadcaster.”
But broadcasters dismiss the accusations. The deputy director of the MBC, Bright Malopa, says opposition politicians often turn down requests for interviews. In fact, in a recent news broadcast, Mpasu spoke with a reporter about Mpasu’s reluctance to talk:
Mpasu: “Well, MBC have been very bad to me although you [the reporter] personally haven’t been. So I am not quite anxious to talk to MBC.”
Reporter: “So you can’t give us an interview; that’s what you are saying?”
Mpasu: “Exactly.”
The MBC has also been facing tough times in its bid to talk to the opposition leader in Parliament, John Tembo, who is also president of the opposition Malawi Congress Party. The media quotes Tembo as saying he was going to get even with the president for stopping Parliament before important issues had been addressed.
Among them was a move to declare vacant the seats of any legislator who had switched parties. Had the plan gone into action, the ruling DPP party would have had to defend in new polls up to 60 of its seats – likely handing a victory to Mr. Tembo and the Malawi Congress Party.
In the following dialog with an MBC reporter, Tembo denies that he was planning to take revenge against the government.
Tembo: “Who did I tell that I was going to [avenge]?”
MBC reporter: “It was in the [news] papers, Sir.”
Tembo: “I don’t give interviews on what is in the papers. I am asking you on the basis of your information, who did I tell?”
Reporter: “we would like to get the reactions on what the president has done.”
Tembo hangs up.
Mpasu explains his attitude towards MBC:
“MBC has personally insulted me twice. I gave them an interview and they distorted what I said, which I thought was totally unethical. So, I said no, these people are useless. What they want is to create a wrong impression of me by using their electronic tricks to make me say what I did not say.“
Prominent media analyst Levi Zeleza Manda says he does not blame those who refuse to give interviews to the state-run media and other groups that take quotations out of context, “The thing is this, if you interview me for an opinion and that opinion was completely misplaced, the next time, I wouldn’t be willing to come to you and respond.”
Berson Lijenda is the chairperson of the Parliamentary Media and Communications Committee and a member of the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF.) He asks why his fellow opposition members did not use their majority to amend the Communications Act, which gives government power to control the public broadcasters.
But former speaker of Parliament Sam Mpasu says asking for an amendment of the Communications Act is missing the point. He says the Communications Act, which was passed in 1998, took away all the powers that were in the hands of the minister of information or the president. He said it vested those powers in the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA,) which he alleges is doing nothing to discipline the public broadcasters.
Recently MACRA has been running advertisements in newspapers criticizing the behavior of some broadcasters.
Minister of Information and Civic Education Patricia Kaliati denies any accusation of bias among the state broadcasters. She says the broadcasters will only survive by going into business full time. Kaliati warned competitors to brace for tougher competition in the scramble for advertisers. The minister says even religious, health and other social programs will be paid for with advertising.
MBC has started accepting advertisements for its social programs, despite arguments by legal experts that it’s contravening the law that governs public broadcasting. For example, in one of its newscasts, MBC reported that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF-Malawi) paid about 3.4 million Kwacha (about $25,000 US dollars) to the network for its social programs.
On the other hand, the law governing broadcasting allows only limited advertising and focuses on the “social responsibility” required of broadcasters that receive public funding. Some lawyers say the MBC act of 1964 also does not allow the network to go commercial. The broadcaster argues that the 1998 Communications Act overrules previous injunctions against advertising.
President Bingu wa Mutharika says despite the failure of the Parliament to provide funding, the two public service broadcasters will survive – with or without tax payer support, “TVM and MBC were established under the act of Parliament so there was no need to give them one Kwacha -- Why one Kwacha? One Kwacha is too much. It was better to give us without anything. But MBC and TVM will continue.”
But the opposition says it is ready to reverse the decision should the public broadcasters start doing their job in a professional manner. Some accuse the opposition of reversing themselves, but observers note that elections are coming in 2009, and some of the opposition candidates probably want to be sure their campaigns receive national coverage.
Officer returns from Malawi beat
A police chief hopes to arrange for two officers from Malawi to experience duties on his patch in Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.
Chief Inspector Andy Walker has returned from Africa following a three week spell with police in Blantyre.
Working out of a small government office, he dealt with incidents of witchcraft and crocodile attacks.
Now he wants Malawian officers to get an insight into the workings of Northern Constabulary.
Ch Insp Walker said police in the Highlands and Malawi have a lot in common.
He said: "I have invited a couple back for a return visit.
"There are a lot of similarities - a lot of it is based along UK policing lines.
"They are dealing with robberies, thefts and assaults as well as the more extreme things like the witchcraft and crocodile deaths."
How rich Africa could beat poverty
An elderly woman and a young girl wait for relief food in Marsabit district in Kenya. African resources do not create new wealth in Africa because they are not processed on the continent, but are shipped to the industrialised countries in raw form.
Africa is not a poor continent. Rather it is the people who are. The continent has the largest world deposits of diamonds, gold, coal, copper and manganese. It has large deposits of minerals, huge reserves of crude oil and natural gas and vast forests, fisheries and land for agriculture and cattle ranching.
Africans rank among the poorest in the world in the midst of plenty for three main reasons. First, since the early days of colonialism, there has been incessant plunder and exploitation of Africa’s resources by the developed world to the detriment of economic development in Africa.
Second, there is deliberate marginalisation of Africa in global financing, foreign direct investment and access to science and technological innovation that could have created new wealth for Africa.
In other words, African resources do not create new wealth or employment in Africa because they are not processed on the continent but are shipped to the industrialised countries in raw form.
And finally, most African governments have, so far, not taken concrete action to ensure that we change globalisation system in our favour.
We have not developed home grown strategies to deal with our specific situations. In most cases, we have depended on “surrogate economists” to advise us and ended up with wrong diagnoses, wrong prescriptions and hence wrong results.
Africa must agree on economic strategies and technological innovations that are tailored to respond to the challenges of poverty alleviation and help to bridge the “technology divide” between industrialised and developing nations.
These measures must prevent the existence of extreme poverty amidst abundant wealth; hunger and malnutrition amidst food surpluses; diseases and death amidst breakthroughs in medical and health sciences; and ignorance amidst phenomenal advancements in information and communications technology.
Malawi is responding to the challenge of poverty through a variety of measures including implementing its home grown strategies and taking full ownership of its economy and destiny.
During the past three years, Malawi has beaten all odds and introduced its own “Green Revolution”. It has implemented a successful agricultural subsidy programme that enabled the country to move from chronic food shortages, famine and malnutrition, to huge food surpluses.
As a result, Malawi has independently been rated among the 12 best managed countries in Africa.
The country has also moved from rampant corruption to a well-managed economy with a high rate of economic growth; and it has empowered the poor urban and rural communities through affordable loans and public works programmes.
Malawi is meeting the challenge of poverty eradication through the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS) that aims to provide a new window of opportunity for the Government, the private sector and the donor community, to combine forces towards achieving sustainable economic growth and to alleviate poverty.
The Government has also decided to have a holistic policy framework that combines the management of consumption and public expenditure with a sound structure of production, manufacturing and income generation.
This not only takes care of the supply side of the economy through application of new technologies, but also changes the colonial economic framework under which we “produced what we did not consume and consumed what we did not produce”.
The Government has decided that to effectively reduce poverty, the Malawi economy must grow at a minimum annual rate of six per cent.
To achieve this, the MGDS has six key “priorities within priorities” that we know can pull the country out of the “poverty trap”.
The index has (1) agriculture and food security; (2) irrigation and water development; (3) transport and communications infrastructure; (4) energy and power development; (5) integrated rural development; and (6) management and prevention of HIV/Aids pandemic. We have also placed high priority on public health and education, especially science and technology.
We have given priority to investment in physical and social infrastructures such as roads, energy, telephone and communication networks, public health, education...to increase industrial production, manufacturing and trade.
As an integral part of this strategy, we have in place the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) that aims to create a favourable and enabling environment for local enterprises to invest and create new wealth for FDI to flow into Malawi.
The new strategy has resulted in the growth of the Malawi economy from a mere two per cent in 2004 to a phenomenal 8.5 per cent in 2006.
To break the “vicious cycle of poverty,” Malawi will not take a posture of “business as usual” but has set up clear “performance criteria” in the national budget to evaluate its actions.
To enhance the performance of our economy, Malawi decided to shift from preparing “expenditure budgets”, to preparing “growth budgets” to provide the nation with a new economic vision, a sound policy for resources mobilisation, and the best practices in science and technology.
This will help transform Malawi from a predominantly importing and consuming economy to a manufacturing and exporting one. Nonetheless, the industrial nations must agree to change their mindset.
In this regard, let me draw your attention to the remarks made by the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who in his report to the House of Commons on the Group of Eight Summit said “the wealthy nations of the world simply cannot any longer ask the developing world to stand on its own feet but shut out the very access to our markets necessary for them to do so”. The world is one and Africa is part of it.
Industrialised nations must work to enable African countries to participate effectively in global negotiations to benefit from technology, global finance, international trade and prosperity.
The continued ruthless plunder and exploitation of Africa’s minerals is no longer a viable option for a new world order. Equity, justice and fairness must be adhered to in all negotiations involving the rich and poor nations.
The more Africa can acquire technology for industrialisation and agro-processing, the more the continent will contribute positively to global prosperity.
An economically and politically stronger Africa is a better trading partner for the industrialised countries than a weaker one.
Wa Mutharika is President of the Republic of Malawi
Flavia Has New Name, New Drinks, and a New Office Drinks Station
Flavia is moving under the new brand from the Mars Family - Mars Drinks. So you can expect to start seeing the Flavia line of drinks station looks a little more like this - The Flavia Drinks Station from Mars Drinks. Oh, and we did we mention - there are two new Flavia drinks coming out: Kona Coffee and Malawi Garden Tea - a sustainable black tea. There's also a new Creation 200 single-serve drinks station designed for office environments with 15-40 people. The current line of Flavia Fusion Drinks Stations and the Creation 400 (read our visit to Mars Drinks) will continue to be sold throughout the US as well. Good news and we like the name - Mars Drinks. Though we live on a blue planet, it's nice to see the people from the red planet making a very interesting update to the single serve coffee world.
A New Name + Two New Drinks + One New Office Drinks Station
A New Beginning for FLAVIA at This Year’s NAMA Expo
FLAVIA Beverage Systems unveils its new name, new drinks, and a new drinks station
October 9, 2007, West Chester, PA – FLAVIA®, the pioneers of single-serve, brew-by-pack beverage systems, is gearing up for a new beginning in 2008. As the leading brand under the newly formed Mars Drinks, a subsidiary of Mars Inc, FLAVIA will unveil their latest offerings - the Creation 200 drinks station, Hawaiian Kona Coffee, and its first sustainable tea, Malawi GardenTM - at this year’s NAMA Expo in Chicago, IL taking place October 9-12.
The Creation 200 single-serve drinks station will be available for purchase late in the first quarter of 2008 and is designed for office environments with 15 to 40 people. Perfect for small to mid-size offices, the Creation 200 is convenient, hygienic, and stylish - bringing the coffee shop experience to the office. A built-in CLARIS water filter maximizes the taste of all of the Mars Drinks choices. The Creation 200 also features an energy efficient design: the machine heats one serving of water at a time; turns to energy saver mode when idle; and uses 100% recycled paper for all inner packaging. The Creation 200 enables employees to enjoy all of the Mars Drinks selection of gourmet coffees, indulgent drinks, wellbeing teas, and real leaf teas.
With the introduction of Kona Coffee, Mars Drinks continues its commitment to developing high-quality, premium beverages. Cultivated on the slopes of Mounts Hualalai and Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawaii, Kona trees thrive in a combination climate only found in Kona. Medium-bodied with a tart, yet sweet flavor featuring chocolate undercurrents, this coffee is a true delicacy!
Mars Drinks will also extend its commitment to sustainability by introducing FLAVIA Malawi Garden Tea, its first sustainable black tea. A healthy delight, Malawi Garden directly supports the growers, their families, and the local community of the Kawalazi tea plantation in Malawi, one of the world’s poorest nations. This new tea joins FLAVIA Kenyan Dawn Coffee as part of Mars Drinks’ Brighter Tomorrow campaign.
About Mars Drinks®
Mars Drinks’ FLAVIA has been satisfying the individual tastes of coffee and tea drinkers for over 20 years (first brewer launched in 1984). It was the first to introduce the Brew-by-Pack drink system to the home and office, and has the only single cup system with authentic cappuccino, mochaccino and chai latte. The FLAVIA filterpack technology is the only system that brews direct and pure from pack to cup. Since 1996, Mars Drinks’ FLAVIA has placed nearly 200,000 Drink Stations in homes and offices with over 2 billion drinks served worldwide. FLAVIA is a registered trademark of Mars, Incorporated, known for brands that include M&M's®, SNICKERS®, UNCLE BEN'S®. For more information and an online demonstration of the system and the patented filterpack technology, visit www.myflavia.com.
About Brighter Tomorrow
Brighter Tomorrow allows Mars Drinks to expand beyond commercial targets and acknowledge its role in economic, environmental and social terms. For more information about The Brighter Tomorrow program, please visit www.brightertomorrow.info.
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